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Mums are being shamed for 'brexting': seriously?

A new word has been invented to put mums down just that little bit more this week: the press has got hold of the term 'brexting' - that's texting while breastfeeding your baby - and decided to run with it as just ANOTHER thing us mums are doing to harm our babies. Deep breath...

According to an interview on US radio station Southern California Public Radio with Dr. Kateyune Kaeni, a psychologist who specialise in maternal health, by texting while breastfeeding mums could be risking their baby not latching on properly and therefore not feeding properly all because we're too busy sending a frivolous text to a bessie mate or ordering a spot of online shopping.

She told listeners mums could be 'missing cues that babies are full or they’re still hungry or their latch isn’t secure or if they are having trouble swallowing.'

She goes on to say:

'If baby is trying to make contact with you by noises or smiles and they can’t and they learn over time that they can’t rely on you to respond, it runs the risk of them becoming either anxiously attached to your or insecurely attached to you and they will ramp up their behaviour until you pay attention.'

It's gone so far that nurses in Californian hospitals are even counselling new mums on limiting their phone usage when feeding their babies.

As you'd expect, the debate around brexting has become pretty heated, with mums expressing their total disbelief at the next installment of mum-shaming to sweep the parenting world. One mum said:

'My son couldn't care less if I’m paying attention to him while he is half asleep breastfeeding, and I need something to keep me awake. When my arm drops even a little it scared him so I need to be kept awake. Lol. I guess people can judge me. Oh well.'

Another wrote:

'The most dangerous thing that ever happened while I was “brexting” was when I accidentally dropped my phone on his head. Oops. But we all survived somehow.'

Needless to say - it's not gone down well. In fact here at MadeForMums we say hats off for what we consider at least to be a multi-tasking triumph quite frankly.